De Martino Syrah Reserva Legado Choapa 2018

Isla de Maipo, Chile

Since 1934 and for four generations, the De Martino family has specialized in the production of wines that are an expression of terroir, of great purity and balance. The company practices sustainable agriculture, traditional winemaking with indigenous yeasts thus obtaining wines that are a faithful reflection of the vineyards from which they come.

It is commonplace to think of Chile as a recent reality in the world wine scene, while the vine, in Chile, has been cultivated for centuries, since the Spanish conquistadors, in the sixteenth century, brought the first vines from Spain. The vine used at that time was the "Pais", a variety of little interest for quality wines, currently still used for base wines or to produce "Pisco". A few years later, with the introduction of new Bordeaux varieties such as Cabernet-Sauvignon, Carmenere and Merlot, the quality of the wines improved considerably. The modern qualitative development began in 1980, thanks to new massive investments that improved the oenological technologies. Today 130,000 hectares of vines are cultivated.

From a geographical point of view, Chile seems to be a paradise created for the cultivation of the vine. From the capital Santiago, for 100 km to the north and 400 km to the south, valleys branch off from the Andes and descend towards the sea: Maipo, Rapel, Curicò, Maule, each with its own river, terrain and microclimate. The general climate is also ideal for the vine: the rains fall mainly in winter, while the dry summer does not favour the development of mould and parasites. The Andean and sea breezes further sanitize the grapes.

Protected to the north by the Atacama Desert, to the east by the Andean mountain range and to the south by Antarctic glaciers, Chile remained unaffected by the phylloxera that devastated European vineyards at the end of the 19th century. Thanks to this, Chilean vines grow on their own roots, giving them a great advantage in terms of quality and longevity compared to grafted vines. This explains the success of Carmenere, which arrived in Chile in 1800 before phylloxera completely destroyed it in Bordeaux. Today, Carmenere can be considered the true indigenous Chilean grape variety. White varieties such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon are also cultivated, as well as Gewurztraminer and Riesling in the cooler southern districts.

The Italian-born De Martino family has been making wine in the Maipo Valley since 1934, ever since Pietro De Martino arrived from Genoa with the specific goal of making wine. The winery, which is still family-owned, has 300 hectares of vineyards, including the prestigious and distinctive vineyards on the Maipo River, which, thanks to its breezy climate and alluvial gravel subsoil, makes for very concentrated and well-balanced wines.

Always animated by a pioneering spirit, the young De Martino brothers have been following for eight years a project of "terroir" zoning to acquire vineyards in the most suitable territories: Limari, Choapa, Casablanca, Colchagua and Maule. De Martino also owns the winery Santa Ines, also in Maipo, which has a long tradition in the production of Carmenere. In 1996, De Martino was the first winery in Chile to label this wine, which has now become Chile's flagship wine.